Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Pander-fest moves from New Hampshire to Michigan, with Mitt Romney leading the way. Quoting from Glen Johnson of the Associated Press:

"How Michigan is doing, how the manufacturing sector, how the domestic auto manufacturing sector is doing, really is a pretty good bellwether of what the future holds for this nation," he said.

Accusing Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, of presiding over a "one-state recession," Romney added: "If anyone wants to know what the nation would be like under Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, they can just look at what Michigan is like under Jennifer Granholm."

Romney pledged research funds to help revitalize the state, as well as trade reforms and efforts to help the auto industry transition to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

"Measure me not by what I say, but what I do," he said, with unusual passion. "I will fight for Michigan. I will commit to you that if I'm president of the United States, I will not rest if Michigan is in a one-state recession. If I'm president, the one-state recession is over."

(I am going to speculate that these talking points did not receive the Greg Mankiw sealofapproval.) Judging by Romney's campaign tactics in New Hampshire, I'm going to guess that his near-term anti-recession strategy for Michigan is to spend obscene amounts of his own money on misleading attack ads against Huckabee and McCain.

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I am a Professor of Economics and the Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College. I am on the board of Ledyard Financial Group (LFGP) and currently serve on the Census Scientific Advisory Committee. I blog about economics, politics, and current events at http://samwick.blogspot.com. The opinions expressed here, there, and everywhere do not necessarily reflect the views of Dartmouth College or any other institution with which I am affiliated.

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